Caray, Caray!

Yep, there's good news and bad news tonight....lots of good scenes with Sara squirming and little Lorena looking good, but Sara pulls off some evil shenanigans as well. A real mixture of ups and downs. So here we go....

Rehash: Ernesto and Monica are haggling (Monica's showing some interesting cleavage but he's unmoved) and Dad ends up siding with Ernesto about the budget.... to Monica's fury. She flounces out while the two good old boys smooth over the discussion with some wine.

Meanwhile, Sara and Chalo have gotten out of her new flash car and are pelvis to pelvis smooching while Arturo looks on gleefully and snaps a photo with his cellphone. I hate Arturo and really hate his greasy hair but he has a wonderful evil chuckle. I'm giving him points for that. I also enjoyed his comment...Why is she going with someone like that when she gives herself such airs. Why indeed?

Chalo wants to hold onto the car and try it out on the highway, assuring Sara that she's good at thinking up excuses for why she wouldn't have it. They decide to say the stereo needs fixing but then go inside to cook up more evil schemes. (Chalo was hoping for some nookie but actually seems more interested in getting his hands on the car.)

Meanwhile, Alonso's trying to get through to his dad, who's bopping around with Bettina's i-pod. He's wanting another "family dinner" this time to introduce new novia Sara. Dad's not on board. He knows Sara as well as he wants to. Punto. Alonso finally wheedles him into it but he's not happy. Alonso...who just gets stupider and stupider (it's the sex I guess) praises Sara as being authentic," not a fake saint like someone we know". Dad walks off muttering, so now do we have to erect a monument to this Sara!?

Back at the restaurant Boss man and Ernesto are still talking about Monica. Ernesto's worried she'll start a war between kitchen and wait staff but Boss man (sorry, didn't pick up his name when I was gone last week) assures him that while she's temperamental she'd never mess with the bottom line.

Maybe not, but she's messing with Ernesto's car, accidentally backing into it and leaving a big scratch. When she finds out whose car it is, she figures it serves him right and threatens the kid who witnessed the accident not to say a word. Of course said kid hits up Ernesto for some money and rats out Monica immediately. We'll see where that leads. But the boy wants to know if Monica is his girlfriend....Would I take on a scorpion like that?! snaps Ernesto. (damn, that probably means they'll end up together. Shoot!!!!)

But I'm getting ahead of the story...Ernesto is still talking with the boss, unaware his vehicle has been damaged. Boss brings up the ladies he met the other night, including what is obviously Maruja, wondering if there might be a place for her. Nope, Ernesto has already picked his staff....and who knows about women anyway!? They both agree.

Meanwhile, Sara and Chalo are scheming on how to get Jaime out of the way. Chalo suggests another accident but our clever Sara says that's too obvious. She'll think of something and then they'll have to deal with Vasco...otherwise he might get put back in the will. This little lady wants it ALL!

Vasco, unaware of all the plotting around him, wants to head back to work to see his buds. Barbara's shrieking, albeit in a motherly way, that it's too soon...at least let the chauffeur take you etc. She's a skank but she does love her son.

And speaking of skanks, here's money-hungry Bruno taking another shot at winning back Diana. He arrives with baby present in hand and she's all like "que lindo" and whatnot. She resists his entreaties for a little while and he actually slips in some obnoxious arguments like: Vasco will tire of you and tire of the baby....and...just to get this over with...he ends up breaking down her resistance. Big smooch. We're gonna get married, I swear by all that's sacred I'll make you happy. The whole enchilada. Diana loses points for this one, big- time. Fooled once, shame on you. Fooled twice, shame on me. And she's going to get hurt, that's for sure.

Oh well, like I said...good news and bad news. Lorena's looking into finding funding since she can't pay all her tuition with what she's earning selling muffins. Friend Patti is raving about Ernesto's book and Chef Hawt arrives to start class, handing out papers for them to fill out. One hapless students moans about it being a pop quiz and gets ejected. The rest have to write about why they want to be a chef. Of course you know who's going to blow Ernesto's socks off with her eloquent answer...but again, that has to wait.

Vasco arrives at work and gets those dreaded words....that's right guys...when a woman says "We have to talk" it's never good news. But he thinks she's just being hormonal and pregnant and blithely goes off to see his buds.

Now back to Patti and Lorena. Patti drew a blank. All she could think of to say was she likes cooking!...but she padded it a little. Then we get a shot of Ernesto reading the replies with disgust. One fellow misspelled "recipe". Another brown-nosed by saying she wanted to be just like Ernesto. "Don't let me down, Lorena", he mutters and of course she doesn't. In fact her reply is so eloquent that later on he asks permission to use it with the Academic Committee to see if she can get a half-tuition scholarship. Hey, that's part of the good news!

Now we have vicious little Sara, going into class with Patti and Lorena, all sneers and contempt, tromping on Patti's foot for good measure, then calling Alonso, "mi amor" on the phone to ask him to pick her up at school. Ooooooh, seethe and burn! Lorena handles it stoically. Then a little verbal catfight ensues when Lorena objects to cooking armadillo in the pre-Hispanic cooking class. Armadillos are an endangered species. Teacher doesn't want to hear it. Neither does Sara who sneers and disses Lorena but our plucky heroine hangs in there, the other students support her and the teacher concedes that they can cook with huitlacoche (see vocabulario) instead. Score points for Lorena!

Nobody likes Sara. Everybody likes Lorena. Except stupid Alonso of course. Whadda drip!

Vasco and Diana are now going round 2 and he's getting the picture. She trots out the usual...you're a wonderful person, a real man, someday you'll find a woman who....He cuts her off and says, even though it breaks my heart, I'll respect your decision.

Meanwhile, skanky Bruno has wasted no time getting on the phone to tell Hortensia it's a done deal, he's reconquered Diana and he wants his check. Hortensia isn't forking over until she sees it with her own eyes. (I hate to say this, but I really like how this lady operates. She's evil but she's upfront about it and she's no fool for sure. Willing to give her a few points, even if she's baaaaad.)

Okay...now the "pièce de resistance"...big confrontational scene with Lorena, Sara and Dr. Dumbass. Sara's parading her paltry trophy in front of Lorena and the other students and Lorena challenges her by saying..."Oh do you want to show everyone you've taken him away from me?....."Or do you want to find out if he still has feelings for me" and kaboom! she moves in and lays a big fat smooch on Alonso ...who is totally cooperative.

Of course they interrupt this with an ad.

Now we're back and Lorena flings him away (Good Lorena! good!) and says, "But I don't feel anything for him. A guy who wouldn't believe me and would run right off with another woman. I care nothing at all for a man like that. But watch out Alonso, Sara will betray you just like she betrayed me."

Sara calls Lorena something awful that was blipped out. Lorena slaps her (Go Lorena!) You'll respect me, our heroine snaps. Sara's ready to get down and dirty but Alonso restrains her and pulls her away.

Patti's impressed and calls Lorena her idol, but we see from Lorena's face the toll the confrontation has taken on her, and she admits she would have like to hear what Alonso had to say. Patti reminds her that men NEVER have anything to say while women have all too much to share.

Sure enough, Sara's fuming about the treatment and wants Alonso to vent and he's saying nuthin' ,absolutely nuthin'. So she tries a new tack and asks him about his work. We have the sad story of a patient with prostate cancer who can't afford the expensive treatment that could help him and we see Miss Sara hatching a new plan to win Alonso's undying love. She'll ask Hortensia for the money. But that comes later too. Hang on.

Sara's now in the office with Hortensia and they're talking about the meeting coming up where Jaime will have a chance to redeem himself in mama's eyes by winning over the big clients. Uh oh...we know Sara will jinx that. Win some, lose some. But first she tries wheedling Hortensia into funding the prostate cancer patient's treatment. Nope, no individual charities. But it will help your image that was soooo damaged by Jaime's faux pas at the banquet, counters Sara. And it will help you look like a queen with Alonso, right? ripostes our clever Hortensia.

She ends up agreeing to the deal but warns Sara against being too madly in love with anyone...it doesn't pay.

As soon as Hortensia leaves, Sara's on the phone to Chalo with a plan to deep-six Jaime. I'll compress and tell you that she gets a powerful sleeping pill prescription, drops it in Jaime's morning orange juice, he falls asleep during his presentation, Hortensia fires him and icky Arturo gets a promotion. Uggh...I just like to get the rotten stuff over quickly if you don't mind.

Now onto pleasanter stuff. Julian's back from Acapulco but Rossy's still giving him the cold shoulder. He looks for advice from his folks and mom suggests a Mariachi serenade. Now where this kid get the money to pay for one I don't know. But he shows up in front of the house, sings with a nice tone but badly off-key, while the musicians play in the background, Rossy, in a fetching nightie, relents and rushes out but alas, the hug is painful....she's still burned to a crisp!

I'll compress the scenes of the "novia dinner" as well. Don Toribio and Bettina aren' t helping set the table...they're making it clear to both Paula and Alonso that they're not on board for this little celebration.

Things don't get any better when Sara arrives and starts oozing her fake charm. She talks about traveling to Europe and hints that she'd like to go sometime with Alonso, which Paula seconds. Bettina says "No!" They try to cover it over by saying that Alonso is her favorite uncle and she wants him around but little Bettina shoots straight from the hip and tells Sara she's a complete phony, making too obvious an effort to make them like her and she far prefers Lorena. (Go Bettina, major major points for that one!) Sara covers with more fake smiles, winks and phony compliments while Bettina and Don Toribio roll their eyes at each other. Bettina is forced to make an apology and she does it as gracelessly as possible, again exchanging conspiratorial looks with Gramps. Quite an enjoyable scene for us Sara haters.

The news of the Vasco/Sara rupture is shared at both houses. Zully and Omar are sad; Hortensia pretends to be sad but isn't, and Barbara is positively gleeful. Jaime suspects Barb of engineering it some way but evidently is unaware of Hortensia's role in the breakup. Poor boob.
Vasco is especially sad....and believes that Diana never really loved him. He won't go back to Omar's house but doesn't want to stay in the mansion either.

So as we near the end of this episode, Sara has won some battles, lost others. Lorena totally showed her up at school. And she's got Chef Hawt on her side and his smile is scrumptious...especially when contrasted with Alonso's scowl. Bettina dumped on Sara at dinner and she's about to find out that Arturo has proof that she's betraying Alonso. And he'll use it to discredit her if she drops the dime on him and Barbara and ruins his chances at work.

On the other hand, she's effectively taken Jaime out of the mix, and now has set her sights on keeping Vasco out of his granny's good graces. And she still seems to have Alonso under her thumb, but hey, that's no big deal.

The evening ends with Arturo showing her the compromising photos of her and Chalo lip-locking and pelvis bumping. But wait...she's already left HER compromising photos of Arturo and Barb on Hortensia's desk! Will the whole scheme blow up in her face? Tune in tomorrow and find out. I'm guessing the wench will find some way to wiggle out of it.

Vocabulario:

ensañarse con = to show someone no mercy (Ernesto with Monica)

pachuca = flashy, (Chalo's opinion of Sara's car)

los barberos = toadies, brown-nosers (Ernesto's opinion of many of his students' answers)

achicharrada = burned to a crisp (Rossy)

huitlacoche - fungal culinary delicacy (what they're going to use in pre-Hispanic cooking class since Lorena objected to slaying armadillos). Check Google for a fuller discussion of this "smoky ingredient" You'll love the literal translation but I'm not giving it here!

Labels: enemiga